


she wants it her way

by sybarite1



Series: We Never Put The FUN In Dysfunctional (Until Now) [9]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Codependency, Diego's Mommy Issues Are Canon, Gen, Happy Ending, Non-Sexual Submission, Post They Save The World, Service Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 10:16:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18259259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sybarite1/pseuds/sybarite1
Summary: “I’m not going to use my brother like that,” says Allison





	she wants it her way

**Author's Note:**

> Please heed the tags. This is technically still gen but really these are not things one does with one's siblings. More notes about this arc at the end.

Vanya does not have all the information.  For all that it barely rains where they are now, the rain that day is completely natural.  Since it isn’t caused by her powers running amuck, she doesn’t think any further on it.  It certainly doesn’t occur to her that Allison and Diego end up sniping at each other because of the weather.  Again, Vanya doesn’t have all the information. 

A person with all the information would know that Allison had therapy that afternoon.  And, as out of sorts as it leaves her, she needs to quietly decompress.  But it’s raining, you see, so Allison’s meditative coping mechanism is denied her; she can’t watch Vanya and Five floating serenely in their pool.  Instead she stalks through the house in a snarl of a bad mood and ends up taking most of it out on Diego for cleaning his knives at the kitchen table.  Diego is not known for his ability to deescalate a situation even when he tries.  Today he isn’t trying. 

Vanya, who had been sipping a cup of coffee and keeping Diego company while he hummed songs one to two hundred years too recent for her to easily identify, is suddenly a bystander to a lot of angry posturing.  She sighs into her coffee cup but, predictably, no one hears her.  She tries to tune most of it out but her attention is piqued right around the time Diego says “ _make me_ ,” in a tone of voice that must be the auditory equivalent of flipping someone off.  

“You _know_ I could,” hisses Allison, she stops pacing and turns to face him, all the frustration of her curbed power clear in her clenched fists. 

Diego takes his eyes off Allison, slides them away from Vanya, looks instead at his hands resting on the table. 

“Do it,” he says quietly, and the moment hangs. 

Vanya and Allison exchange a wide-eyed glance with each other.  “ _Woah_ ,” it says, and absolutely nothing more helpful.  They are new to silent communication and clearly need to step up their game.  Klaus and Ben can-but that’s not pertinent right now. 

“Di…” says Vanya, tentatively.  He still doesn’t look up. 

“I’m giving you permission, okay?” he says to the table top, though its clearly meant for Allison.  “I know what you’re gonna say and I’m telling you you can.” 

“I’m not going to use my brother like that,” says Allison, shaken out of her bad mood and now on her way to being concerned.  And that _does_ make Diego look up.  He’s frowning – not like he’s angry – more like he’s genuinely confused. 

“If not me, then _who_?” he asks, looking up at Allison from his seat at the table, and he has a point.  If it has to be somebody, it’s gonna be family.  Allison takes an unsteady breath and holds his gaze. 

“Okay,” she says. 

“Yeah?” says Diego?  He seems cautiously hopeful, like there’s something about this that works for him too. 

“Wait, what?” says Vanya.  She looks into her coffee cup as though to double check that it’s just coffee she’s been drinking.  

“You can’t be serious?” she mutters, but when no one rushes to tell her that they’re joking, she pushes her chair back and stands to go.  

“I’m just… gonna… leave you guys to it,” she says awkwardly, and is halfway to the door before Allison calls her back.  Vanya looks wistfully at the kitchen door but turns away from her escape route.  

“What?” she sighs. 

“I need someone here who can tell me no,” says Allison, and the frank admission that Diego won’t have that power makes him swallow hard.  Still, he sits calmly at the table, waiting. 

 _Waiting to be told what to do_ , realizes Vanya, a second before _this is messed up!_ goes ricocheting through her brain.  She looks at Allison, standing tall above Diego, and tells her thoughts to shut up.  She’d do weirder things if her siblings needed her to, and they do both seem to want this.  Vanya moves closer, so she’s standing on Diego’s left, Allison on his right. 

“Okay,” she says, “okay, I’ll stay.” 

Diego shoots her a quick, sweet grin. 

“You good Di?” Allison asks.  He nods. 

“Well I heard a rumor…”

 

* * *

 

It becomes a thing, their thing.  Occasionally Allison misses the control she once had and will swoop into a room. grab Vanya by the wrist and tug her away from the others, knowing that Diego will come find them.  Most of the time, though, it’s Diego who asks, using everything but words.  Vanya swears he even pouts at her but he denies it.  Usually they hang out in Diego’s room and Allison never makes him do anything he shouldn’t do.  The instructions are always safely mundane, it’s the fact that he _has_ to follow them that is the focal point; the thing they both crave.  Although perhaps there’s also something to be said about being made to do the things that are good for you, some caretaking aspect that Diego still needs.

Vanya starts off feeling like an awkwardly perched referee, but now she lies on Diego’s bed while he’s rumored into putting his laundry away, or brushing his teeth, or getting a full night’s rest.  Sometimes, in between rumors, they all lie on his bed and hang out.  Diego confesses he likes that they make his bed smell like women; nice shampoo and perfumes mingling around him.  He doesn’t say that he misses Patch and Mom. He doesn’t have to.  Sometimes he drifts off between them as Allison and Vanya talk over him, Allison’s hand steady on his back, Vanya’s fingers in his hair.

 

* * *

  

It’s great.  In fact, it’s probably the best thing Diego has going for him and he gets to have it whenever he wants.  He just has to reach out and his sisters are there, every time.  It’s not a luxury he’s had a lot of experience with.  They’re in the conservatory, Diego proud of how far his plants have come along, even though none of his brothers seem to have considered who’s keeping them alive.  It’s just Diego, Allison and Vanya, and because he wanted to do something nice for them, he’s painting their nails.  Diego has _very_ steady hands.

Diego finishes with Vanya’s toenails, now a cute shell pink, when she smiles at him and says “Di, I heard a rumor that you’re gonna make me a G&T.”

That’s another thing that happens, though she’s more gentle about it, Vanya bosses him around nearly as much as Allison does.  It’s super cute, like a joke they’re all in on, because theoretically she doesn’t have the power to do so.  Diego has decided that her approving smile is compulsion enough and they all seem pretty happy with the arrangement.

He chuckles, still on his knees, holding her foot on his thigh, “Yeah Van, that can definitely be arranged.”

He stands and looks at Allison questioningly.  If he’s going to the bar she may as well tell him if she also wants anything.

“Mmm,” says Allison, considering.  Her hands are carefully resting on the arms of her wicker chair, nails a gleaming new coat of plum.  “I heard a rumor you’re gonna bring me some orange juice.”

Diego nods.

“What the _HELL_?” Luther is standing in the doorway, red faced and alarmed.  “You’re just using your powers on us now?”

Diego would try to protest that it’s fine, or that it’s not what it looks like even though it’s exactly what it looks like, but he has to go fetch orange juice right now.  So he brushes past Luther and leaves the girls to deal with the fallout.  He really has been hoping this would stay between the three of them.  Of course, as it goes when you try to keep a secret but you also have six goddamned siblings, everyone knows by dinner.

Dinner is Chinese.  It’s also really awkward.

**Author's Note:**

> In this arc:  
> \- Ben is alive  
> \- Klaus is sober  
> \- Five is aged up  
> \- Allison can speak  
> \- Vanya can control her powers  
> \- Luther is 100% human again and  
> \- Diego still stutters because you’ll pry that from my cold, dead hands.
> 
> Also, while this is tagged gen, it’s also tagged for codependency. These guys aren’t necessarily having healthy and well-adjusted relationships with each other, even if they are enjoying them. They’re not great at boundaries, for starters, and they come back clingy af. Also, while I anticipate adding more gen pieces, I may also add pieces that flirt with shipping or that have pairings outright, because, like I said, they’re not great with boundaries and they’re clingy af. They will be tagged accordingly so you can avoid them if preferred. My last caveat is that this is horribly self-indulgent. I just wanted to write them kinda happy and together. Bear with.


End file.
